Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
NYSE
Equity futures traded overnight on Thursday, following a four-day winning streak on Wall Street, while investors awaited a detailed report on jobs in January.
The futures market on the Dow Jones industrial average rose by just 20 points. S&P 500 futures were level and Nasdaq 100 futures were up 0.1%.
The Labor Department publishes its work report for January Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET. Economists expect 50,000 payrolls to be added last month, after falling 140,000 in December, according to Dow Jones. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 6.7%.
There were signs of improvement in the recovery of the labor market. Thursday’s weekly data on jobless claims filed 779,000 for the first time, the lowest since November 28 and below the 830,000 expected by economists.
The S&P 500 rose for a fourth day to close at a record high on Thursday, bolstered by technology and banking stocks. The Dow jumped more than 300 points in the previous session, while the Nasdaq Composite also reached a new high.
“The three pillars of the rally have actually become stronger: Q4 earnings are exceeding expectations dramatically, more stimulus is being poured into the economy and the vaccination rate is accelerating,” Adam Crisafulli, founder of VItal Knowledge, said in a note.
With four consecutive days of profit, the key averages are at their best weekly performance since November. The blue-chip Dow rose 3.6%, while the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq rose 4.2% and 5.4% respectively. The market recovered from last week’s sharp losses as speculative trading frenzy disappeared.
Wall Street is in the middle of a solid earnings season. Of the 184 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 84.2% were analysts’ expectations, according to Refinitiv.
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